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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
1002nd Tale of the Arabian Nights, September 5, 2002
When Christy meets up with her second cousin, Charles, on a street called Straight in Damascus, she has no idea that her harmless foray into the Middle East will end behind a locked hareem door. As members of a well-to-do and filthy rich banking family, both Mansels are a little spoiled and very used to getting their own ways. Hence, it does not seem out of order or intrusive for them to look up great-aunt Harriet, an eccentric old lady who has shunned life in England while living like a pasha for almost a decade in a palace called Dar Ibrahim in the high Lebanon. On impulse, Christy goes solo to the palace, meeting an ecletic cast of characters straight out of the Arabian Nights. Strangest of all is her elderly aunt who has taken the pasha descriptor a little too seriously, dressing in male Arab garb and smoking a hookah. The backdrop, in true Stewart style, is drop-dead-gorgeous; the palace, its gardens, the prince's divan, the seraglio, the darkened corridors and treasure troves are all perfectly illumined for the reader by the author's rich use of language and a seemingly photogenic memory for even the smallest detail--the baying of the locked hounds as Christy wanders about the crumbling palace is just the thing to raise the hair off the back of any reader's neck, while the heady scents of herbs and flowers act as a profuse intoxicating calmative. Of course, there is a mystery which Christy unwittingly stumbles upon like all the other Stewart heroines. But, in this case, as well-off Christy is so very different from the working girls of the other novels, she meets mayham with an outraged aplomb which is marvelously comedic especially during the novels more crucial dramatic moments. I listened to the audio version of this book read by Davinia Porter who has read other Stewart novels but somehow manages to get across Christy's spoiled yet kindly dispostion in a fresh style that makes the listener wish the reading would never end. There is romance, again underplayed in Stewart's signature style; as with all her male leads, the hero acts as a buttress to make sense out of Christy's spirited insights. I recommend this whole-heartedly; the language is unsurpassed; the conjuring of the Middle East of the 60s romantic and whimsical.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exciting and fast-paced, February 23, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: The Gabriel Hounds (Mass Market Paperback)
With her usual magic, Mary Stewart brings to her readers resourceful and forthright young people involved in intricate webs of danger and intrigue in an exotic location. Mary Stewart's top-notch success is displayed in her fast-paced and action-packed sequences that never bore her readers. Each character and location of the action as it is played out is always vividly described with a superb and real sense of detail. It is because of this superb sense of detail that a half dozen reads may not even be enough for most of her novels. From the back cover - "The Gabriel Hounds is rich with authenticity, warm and lively people, and a story line that will hold you fast till the very end. Against the exotic backdrop of the Middle East is unfolded the tale of Christy Mansel, a spirited young Englishwoman who pays an unexpected visit to an eccentric old aunt in a crumbling Arabian Nights palace in Lebanon. Christy does not know it, but the moment she passes through the gates of Dar Ibrahim she unwittingly sets in motion a dark sinister force that carries with it both terror and death."
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stewart's take on Hester Stanhope, July 21, 2009
Second cousins Christy and Charles Mansel, while on separate holidays, bump into each other on a street called Straight in Damascus. With the devil may care attitude of the wealthy and privileged, the two decide to look up Great Aunt Harriet, an infamous recluse holed up in her palace in the mountains outside of Beirut. Christy gets there first and after literally barging her way in soon finds herself in the midst of a seriously creepy palace right out of the Arabian Nights peopled with insolent servants, crumbling plaster, leaking roofs as well as the hounds who prowl the grounds at night like the spectral Gabriel hounds of the otherworld.
And that is really about all of the plot I am willing to give away - any more and I'd ruin it for you. Suffice it to say that Christy and Charles soon find themselves in the thick of things as they try to unravel the mystery surrounding their reclusive Aunt Harriet and the servants determined to keep her away from all visitors. I loved loved loved the way Stewart set the scenes, particularly the very spooky palace with the secret staircases, hidden doorways, crumbling plaster, a rusty nail breaking the silence as it falls, all topped off with a fabulous nail biting finish as the island in the midst of the Seraglio (harem) becomes the author's own take on Noah's Ark during a sinking ship. Despite being a bit too wealthy and spoiled, the banter between Christy and Charles was fun and refreshing and added the perfect zest to your basic heroine in peril needing to be rescued by the hero. Four stars.
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